First Light
by daisydol
Summary: **Update** No longer just a one-shot. A "Midnight Sun-like" take on various scenes from Breaking Dawn that I wanted to see from Edward's POV, beginning with the honeymoon. Rated M for tasteful love scenes in several chapters. No smut! R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, I am a huge fan of Midnight Sun and am still all kinds of depressed that Stephenie Meyer refuses to finish it. Having said that, I could not help but have this story pop into my brain due to my intense desire to not only see Midnight Sun finished but an Edward POV of Breaking Dawn. I can't help it, I am a romance writer after all!**

**I own nothing.**

If I had a pulse that could race, I would be having an incredibly hard time keeping it from doing so at the moment. There were many things that I had gleaned in this life, things that I had learned through my years and years of study and things I had gathered from a life that was twice as long as it should have been. For example, I knew the entirety of Shakespeare's works by rote. I could play Mozart's Requiem and I knew every derivation of American high school curriculum that could possibly be applied. But in all of my years, with all of my knowledge held firmly in my unchanging head there was one thing that I hadn't known.

That I could ever want another being the way I wanted my wife right now.

It had been a spontaneous stroke of genius when I suggested that we go for a midnight swim before we took advantage of the enormous bed that dominated the master suite. Still holding Bella in my arms, feeling the searing heat of her seeping into my skin as I saw her gaze lock onto that bed with it's gauzy mosquito netting and downy comforter was almost my undoing. It was the rare moment when it didn't matter that I could not hear her thoughts, but that moment was among them for I knew exactly what she was thinking and the idea of it made it difficult for me to keep my control. Suddenly I wanted to hold her too tight, to touch her too fiercely and I knew that if I didn't put just a modicum of space between us so I could regain control than things could spiral out of hand alarmingly quickly.

The warm breeze blew across my face as I reached the crooked tree near the water's edge and I began to strip off my clothes to hang among its branches. I had always loved coming to Isle Esme for its warmth and its beauty and also for its utter lack of people. Aside from my family, there was a refreshing lack of voices to block from my head and I could spend most of my days in quiet and calm.

But I had never known such peace and silence in my entire life. Even in my fuzzy human memories I could pick up on the thoughts of others, such was my gift even before I was changed. For over 100 years I had been able to hear every thought of every being that I've ever encountered. Glancing back over my shoulder at the beach house and seeing that Bella was still taking her human moments I turned back to the water and allowed my eyes to fall closed. As I was unable to hear her thoughts, the only sound I could hear were the waves lapping gently onto the beach. It was a singular moment in my existence and I cherished it.

A calm settled over me as I realized that everything was going to be fine. Clad in only the light from the moon and the sultry night air I walked soundlessly to the water and wadded out until I was waist deep. I knew that the water would feel warm and soothing to Bella for it felt almost molten to my icy skin. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, especially considering that the sensation of standing in the surf utterly naked was a new one to me. In such a long lifetime, how was it possible that this last handful of months had held more new experiences than the duration of the preceding timeline? I'd never known love, at least not the love a man feels for a woman. I'd never known jealousy and envy, heartache and heartbreak. I'd never even known I was capable of feeling the desire that had threatened to overcome me at every turn during my time with Bella, first for her blood, then for her love and now….

I heard the soft groan of the door leading to the beach from the house and new that Bella was coming to meet me. I closed my eyes, willing my nerves to settle back into the calm that I had found before. There were so many emotions coursing through me all at once it was as if a child had blown on a dandelion and all of the spindly seeds were my feelings, blowing chaotically around in my head and heart until I couldn't pinpoint which ones to try and reign in first. Anticipation was large among the thoughts as her footfalls stopped at the tree where I had disrobed and my sensitive vampire ears heard her doing as I had done only moments before. I was about to attempt something that terrified me to my very core and yet I wanted it more than I could describe, even to myself.

Fear and apprehension ranked next among my thoughts for I knew that even one wrong move on my party could hurt Bella badly, even kill her. Before we'd disembarked on our honeymoon I had discussed Bella's desire to consummate our union prior to changing into a vampire with Carlisle and my brothers. Even Emmett had stayed serious through out the discussion; such was the gravity of what we were going to attempt. As far as any of them knew it had never been done before, that a willing human was giving herself to a vampire in such a way and the vampire wanted to keep her safe and whole. They could not speak to how the act would go on that accord other than it held great danger for Bella, but they were able to at least give me some insight into how I would feel so I may be more prepared to keep myself in control.

What they told me both intrigued me and frightened me even more than I had been before. They told me that it was a different experience for us because we were vampires and that we lived a life cut into stone, a life that when that stone were to change the change was permanent and intense. I knew how this felt for when I fell in love with Bella my whole world seemed to fracture in that earth shaking moment of realization that was both painful and so gloriously joyous that it rocked me to the core of my existence. If sharing physical love with her was going to be anything like that, and my brothers assured me that it was all that and more, I was afraid. Could I control my needs and urges in the heat of such intensity? Could I live up to the faith that Carlisle had in me that I wouldn't hurt Bella in the throes of my own gratification?

The sound of her tentative steps at the shoreline pulled me from my nervous reverie and I gazed up at the moon to center myself. My acute senses registered every millisecond of her approach, from the slight disturbance of the water as she entered it to the sound of her uneven breathing growing ever closer and a feeling in the pit of my stomach began to curl as a fist would. Bella was coming. This was all real.

The feel of her hand sent ripples of electricity through me as she placed it gently over my own and stood beside me to gaze at the moon as well. In my peripheral vision I could see that she had nothing on and I had to fight to keep my breath even and calm.

She commented on the moon's beauty, leaving me the perfect opening to compliment her. As long as we were keeping it to idle banter I was still on even ground.

But then she turned to me and I was forced to face the moment of my greatest fear and my greatest wishes head on. I mimicked her movement and turned to face her too, my eyes drinking in the beauty of her standing in the water under the pale moon. Her skin seemed to shimmer to my keen vampire eyes and I couldn't take my eyes off of her perfection. I loved her so much, so completely in this moment as she stood before me bare and vulnerable. I knew I could protect her no matter what. I knew I must.

She laid her hand on my bare chest and I couldn't stop the shudder of pleasure that ripped through me at the feel of her hot flesh against me. All hope of keeping my breath even and sure was lost. She'd never touched my bare chest before and the knowledge that she was now able to touch me as she wished, as I was able to touch her too, was too much. For all of the fear and tension and anxiety coursing through me in white-hot waves, none of them crested above the tsunami of need I felt now. I'd waited a century for her and now she was mine alone.

I gazed down into her eyes, half lidded and shining with love and desire and it shook me to my foundation. The expression in her eyes was all for me and it mirrored how I felt exactly. Clearing my throat imperceptibly, I wanted to lay out the ground rules and sound self assured and serious as I did, but my voice came out a coarse whisper as I reminded her that I'd promised only to _try_ making love to her but that didn't mean that if I was hurting her or if I was doing anything that wasn't right that we could continue.

"Don't be afraid, we belong together."

Her words soothed me like a balm even as a far recess of my mind found it mildly amusing that such a role reversal could exist in the world. A human was telling a vampire not to be afraid. This had to be a universal first, like so many things between Bella and I had to be firsts.

Then she closed the final distance between our bodies and laid her head on my chest. Every nerve in my body went into overdrive immediately. The feel of her unclad body pressed to my own was almost more than I could bear. Up to this point even our most risky moments of weakness on the physical front could be considered down right chaste and now I was suddenly holding my wife in the arms I couldn't help but wrap around her with nothing between us but the love we shared.

Knowing this feeling existed, knowing that pleasure of this magnitude was possible suddenly gave me the strength to attempt what we'd set out to. If the universe contained something as magical as this moment, with the promise for more to come as the night moved forward, than maybe the universe was not the cursed place that I had perceived it to be these long years. Maybe there was such a thing as happy endings and maybe, just maybe, I could have one. Soul or no soul, maybe there was a happily ever after here.

Just the hope of that would have to be enough and I surrendered to the moment.

I surrendered to my wife.

Pulling her gently into deeper water I laid my lips gently against hers, reveling in their softness and how they yielded to mine. Her scent burned me as it always had, but I'd grown accustomed to it now. It surrounded me, infiltrated my senses until I was so filled with her that we could have been on Mars for all I cared. There was only Bella and the feeling of her against me. The water lapped calmly around us, pushing us slightly together and pulling us apart over and over, creating sensations that tantalized and excited my senses. I could feel her breasts brushing against me, feel her nipples made hard by the sensations around us and I felt myself grow ready to take her.

Forcing myself to be careful I ran my hands into her hair so I could thread my fingers through its soft thickness and I kissed her as I'd never kissed her before. Though it was still slow and soft so I wouldn't hurt her, I parted her lips cautiously with my own and explored the sweet depths of her mouth with my tongue. She was tentative at first but she quickly mirrored my motions. When her tongue slid languidly against mine a shudder rocked my body more violently than I had ever experienced and I felt her smile against my mouth.

She liked that she was making me feel good which warmed my still heart. The thought that she would want to make this special for me too was just another reminder that, unfathomably, she loved me. This creature loved me as I loved her. Some of the tension began easing from me as I felt her hands run idly up and down my back. We loved each other, there had to be something to that alone that would keep her safe.

"Edward." She murmured against my lips, making my breath pick up speed and the knot tighten again, low in my belly. "Edward."

"Yes?" I whispered, my voice barely audible to her human ears.

She ran her hands down beneath the surface of the water and along my backside. "Take me to the big white bed Edward."

I could tell from the heat pouring from her that she was blushing from head to toe and I was desperate to see her in the pale light inside the house, to feel her beside me.

Beneath me.

I scooped her into my arms again and began making my way out of the water and back to the house, reminding myself repeatedly not to run though I nearly lost my senses and bolted at full speed when she began placing a trail of kisses across my jaw line and down my neck. God, I needed her like the living needed air.

It took an interminable amount of time to traverse the beach and get to the door that led us to that big white bed, but I made it. Looking down into her face just before I put her down I searched it for any last dregs of hesitation, any inkling that she didn't want to continue with this. All I saw was desire and naked need, which was all the answer I needed to the questions in my head of if we were truly going to go through with this.

"I love you Bella Cullen. I love you my wife." I said and thrilled a bit at the flush that I now got to appreciate fully as it spread across her cheeks and chest.

"I love you Edward Cullen. I will for eternity."

With her words I laid her down on the center of the bed as I would lay a crystal goblet on a bed of rocks. She gazed up at me and I could tell that she was anxious for me to join her there but I needed a moment, just a moment, to gaze fully at her laying on the bed before me. She was an angel, laying on a soft white cloud of blankets and sheets and my body thrilled to the sight of hers. She shifted slightly and I could see in her face that she was growing self conscious from my scrutiny but I had lost the power of words. The curve of her calf, the smooth lines of her belly, the swells of her breasts were more beautiful to me than any work of art hanging in the best galleries, than any sunset or any field of wildflowers. I saw her begin to forget her discomfort as she took in my own body and I was filled all at once with the desire to please her eyes as she pleased mine.

I knew that we appeared beautiful to humans and Bella herself had told me on numerous occasions that I pleased her physically, but she'd never seen me naked before and a desire to appeal to her even a fraction of how she appealed to me was suddenly of utmost importance.

Her expression grew smoky, her cheeks brightening even more as she met my eyes and smiled almost coyly. "Come here."

I realized that I'd been holding my breath and I let it out in a shaky breath as I did as I was told for I no longer had any shred of will to deny her left inside me. Without breaking her gaze I climbed into the bed beside her and stretched out on my side as she rolled to hers so we were chest to chest again.

We picked up where we had left off in the water, but the sensations were utterly new and different here on dry land. The texture of her skin against my hand as I ran it down the side of her body and over her hip, the friction that existed when her breasts grazed against me were more intimate and intense now that there wasn't water acting as a barrier between our bodies.

Suddenly she changed the tone a bit and I felt her hand fist in my hair as she slid her leg up mine only to drape it wantonly over my waist, exposing her core to me. My response was immediate and frightening as I felt myself take her by the wrists and I pushed her onto her back so I could lay over her. Our kisses began to increase in speed, though I worked doubly hard on keeping my ministrations gentle, I was starting to feel minute lapses in control, especially when she was unconsciously undulating her hips beneath me in what I knew was a desperate invitation.

An invitation I now had absolutely every intention of accepting.

I had to keep myself steady, keep my hands soft and my kisses measured but it was growing difficult. Explosions of need and desire continued to detonate inside me and when I felt her hands slide down to grip my hips and then slide brazenly over my backside I had to sink my teeth into the pillow beside her head just to release some of my tension. The fabric tore in my mouth as if I'd bitten into softened butter, doing very little to ease the overwhelming passion that was bubbling inside me.

I felt her hot breath against my ear as she took the lobe experimentally in her teeth and I slid my hand between our bodies to finally indulge my desire to know the weight and warmth of her breast. She gasped as I cupped it, the sound fanning the flames to inferno inside me and I bit the pillow again. I knew I was dancing on the edge of danger but I didn't feel afraid or trepidatious anymore. All I felt was want.

Feathers were beginning to work their way out of the damaged pillow with our movements but I paid them little mind as I lowered my head to her nipple and took it in my mouth. She moaned and arched her back at the feeling, which only spurred me on. Suddenly my hands were everywhere. For every moment I'd wanted to touch her, every time I'd repressed my needs to keep her safe, every instance that I'd pushed her away or stopped us down this road so as to not endanger her I now indulged every whim. I slid the backs of my fingers down her cheek, I kissed the inside or her knee, I ran my open hands up her thighs. I was everywhere and, for all of her human limitations, she matched my passions with her own and it took my breath away.

I felt her nails down my back, her hands in my hair. She ran her hands up and down my chest and belly over and over again and I never grew accustomed to the sensations of pure pleasure it aroused in me.

Our love play continued on for quite awhile and I, at least, would have been able to continue on like that indefinitely had two things not happened simultaneously. As our mouths found each other again and we kissed as deeply as we ever had Bella slid her hand down my chest, down my belly and I sucked in a shocked and ragged breath when she continued on only to wrap her long and delicate fingers around that part of me that could join us and moan into my ear. "I need you Edward. Please, I need you inside me."

If the feel of her touching me there, asking me to take her wasn't enough the please was my total undoing. Wordless thoughts swam through my head as my body seemed to take over to do what came naturally. I put my hands on either side of her head and looking down deeply into the warm chocolate brown of her eyes I began to slide inside of her so that our bodies could become one as our hearts already had.

I had to go slowly, not only to remain in control while the most unbelievable, indescribable sensations assailed me but to ensure that I didn't hurt Bella as this was her first time as well as mine too. I could feel her body slowly allowing itself to accommodate me and I watched her face for any signs of pain. She closed her eyes for a moment and seemed to wince which stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Am I hurting you?" I gasped; my body screaming for me to continue though my will to be tender prevailed.

"No. Please don't stop." Her hips rose to mine, driving me a fraction deeper in the process and I completed my entrance with a shaky half thrust. I looked into her face again and if I'd hurt her she didn't show it for this time her eyes were wide with wonder as she gazed back at me. I'm sure mine looked the same and we sat like that for just a moment, fused together and on the precipice of discovery. Together, we made the plunge.

As I began to move within her I couldn't get a grasp on what I was feeling. No words could describe the intensity. I hadn't known I was capable of feeling such passion, such hunger for a woman, even Bella. As we made love I felt a touch here or a caress there that I knew had to be too rough, but she never acted as if I was giving her anything but pleasure. Moans and gasps filled the thick night air from both of us as I felt her gathering beneath me, felt her body growing tenser and more rigid as my pace began to accelerate slightly and my thrusts began to deepen.

Without warning she let out a cry just as I felt the part of her that surrounded me clench rhythmically and I knew she'd found release. She grabbed my arms and arched her head back as an expression of pure ecstasy crossed her beautiful features. Her neck and chest were scarlet and heat poured from her, surrounding me like a blanket.

It was my undoing. My movements became irregular, my rhythm completely shattered as animal instinct took over. My mind was able to remember not to bite her, not to consider her prey and I was pleased that the idea to drink her blood had no appeal to me. I only wanted her as my love.

Stars burst into prisms of blinding light behind my eyes as my own release came upon me in a moment that ripped a growl from my throat. I could feel my eyes prickling and I knew if I still had the capacity to weep I would. My heart was too full, my body to alive, my emotions too raw and in that moment I knew I had to have a soul. There was no way that I could be experiencing something this complex and otherworldly without one.

Breathless, I gazed down at my wife and as her eyes began to grow slumberous I lay my forehead against hers to give myself a moment to gather some composure. "I'm so in love with you." I whispered and shut my eyes to luxuriate in this moment of perfect peace for just a second.

"Me too. I love you too." She answered and I lowered myself to my side, rolling off of her slightly, so I could hold her against my while she fell into sleep beside me. It was there that I would stay through the rest of the night and for the rest of my life my heart would be in this moment.


	2. Transformation

**Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the honeymoon chapter of this story! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I had intended on just having this be a one shot but since ya'll liked it I think I might do a few more chapters of the book from Edward's POV here and there. I don't plan on doing the whole book, just the parts that I really wanted to see through Edward's eyes. Feel free to let me know what you think but, primarily, I just hope you enjoy reading them. ;)**

**I own nothing relating to Twilight or any of its components.**

If ever there was a time in my long, long existence that I wished for the sweet oblivion of sleep it was now. Actually, wished wasn't a strong enough word. My mind flipped through the synonyms in my head that might better apply to what I felt, yielding results like yearn, need, aspire, hope or want. None of them could describe the desperation in my heart to let my consciousness cease to be for just a little while. If only I could just fade off, fade to black long enough for everything to be okay. I would go to sleep and when I awoke my beautiful Bella, my love, would be all right. She would be smiling that smile at me with her warm, chocolate eyes and she would flush pink at the sight of my open affection for her and there would be no question that everything was as it should be.

But none of those things were going to happen.

I knew I had been thorough, there was no way that I was going to agree to turning Bella into a vampire without being thorough, but having never turned someone before I couldn't be sure that I had done it correctly and Bella's utter stillness gave me no indication of my failure or success, leaving me to sit in torment by her side with nothing to do but wonder.

According to Carlisle, the act of turning a person into a vampire, of making them into a creature like us, was actually quite simple. As long as the heart is still beating to pump venom through the system a vampire must merely ensure that enough venom has been delivered to change the body completely. It acts not unlike an infection. Once introduced, it takes over until the human body can no longer fight to stay alive in its original state and the transformation is complete. A blinding, all encompassing pain ensues while the metamorphosis takes place and then a newborn vampire is made.

But there were so many variables that I couldn't have anticipated!

Bella's body had been so ravaged by carrying Renesmee that even breathing had become a chore. The strain that it had put on her, especially her heart, was enormous. When I heard that snap, when I saw the blood coming too much and too quickly I had tried to be as fast as I could but it was like being trapped under water. Suddenly I couldn't reach her fast enough, couldn't be strong enough or cunning enough or prepared enough. I followed the plan, I delivered my daughter and injected the venom and the morphine, but I had never felt so powerless or so helpless in my life.

Her heart was beating, which Carlisle continued to assure me was a good sign, but her utter stillness was unlike anything we had ever seen. My family all tried to keep their thoughts to themselves, but it was impossible to be entirely silent around me and I could hear their confusion and concern echoing my own. Why was she so still? I could smell the morphine in her system and I ached to believe that her pain was minimal due to its presence, but there was no way at all to be sure.

It didn't matter to me in the least that she would never open her eyes again to reveal the warm brown depths that I'd grown accustomed to falling into or that her skin would never flush again, giving me the only window into her thoughts that I had ever possessed. I didn't remotely care that when she awoke her eyes would glow a fiery scarlet that belied her desire for blood and that a thirst of indescribable intensity would burn in her throat, begging her to sate it with the life force of a living thing. All I cared about was that she survive. I would take her any way she was, just so long as I could have my wife.

A tiny coo echoed downstairs and warmth stole temporarily through my worry. My daughter.

I took Bella's still hand in my own, stopping to note its ever growing coolness for just a moment as I brought it to my lips, and then I kissed her fingers as I allowed myself the smallest of smiles. I had a daughter and this goddess before me had given her to me.

I'd been so young when I turned that having children had been but a distant idea, something that I might do if I survived the war I was so anxious to fight. Having a wife and family had always been something that I had wanted, but that was something people did later. Then I became a vampire and I saw how fiercely our kind loved once they found their mate. I knew I wouldn't be able to have children, but I thought that I might find a mate to share my existence with after my youthful bloodlust and rebellions were over. But my mate continued to allude me and I found myself alone in a houseful of happy couples until the day that this beautiful, shy, clumsy girl stumbled into an 11th grade biology class that I'd taken more times than I cared to recall.

My life was more full, more complete, more rich than I ever knew it capable of being. Bella had opened doors to me that I hadn't even known existed, let alone knew how to open. Because of Bella I now knew what if felt like to be in love, to be jealous and heartbroken but to be overjoyed and exultant as well. Because of Bella I now knew what it felt like to press my lips to someone else's, what it felt like to twine my fingers through the fingers of another. The brush of a cheek, the tickle of breath on my neck, the tingle of fingers in my hair, the intensity of becoming one physically with the person you are one with spiritually. I knew what all of these sensations were now, but 24 hours ago I had no idea that there could be more in light of all of these blessings. Now, as I listened simultaneously to the labored beating of my beloved's dying heart and the happy squeals of our perfect baby downstairs in my sister's arms I knew that my wildest imaginings could never have come close to the reality of my life.

I loved Bella utterly, completely and with my whole heart. My love for her had not and could not change but now there was a new person in my life and my love for her was so deep and total that it was hard to conceptualize. I loved every hair on her head, ever glimmer in her eye. I loved how she grabbed my finger and how she looked at me with eyes that were so wise for her mere hours of life. I loved that I could look at her and see both Bella and myself, a perfect reflection of the love that we had for each other and all that it could create in this world.

Bella's hand in mine grew cooler still and I was pulled from my momentary reverie back to the present. It was a tiny change, imperceptible to a human, but one that I could sense easily. Her human body was dying, her core temperature dropping infinitesimally with each second that the venom did its job. I could feel her flesh yielding less to the touch of mine, see small changes to her features as they smoothed out and began to take on an etherealness that human's found both so beautiful and so strange about us. It went against everything I had fought for to watch her die, to witness her losing her mortal life with each passing moment and it tore me apart. I hated myself for my part in it, I hated myself for being unable to prevent it and, most of all, I hated myself for the tiny part of me that was happy. She would be immortal and I would never have to lose her. I could be with her, hunt with her…love her, with all of myself. No holding back. Part of me reveled in the thought of it, and made me loathe myself with a fervor I'd never known.

I heard Carlisle rise from his position on the couch downstairs and his footsteps as he began to ascend the stairs to check on Bella's progress. He'd done so every hour since he'd arrived back home, too late to aid me in the chaotic moments of Renesmee's birth and Bella's near death, but shortly after enough to make me feel more at ease that I had done everything I could do. I refused to allow myself to hope that I could deserve a happy ending like the one that he saw for us, though Carlisle's optimism was difficult to refute. Yet I hung on his every reassurance with each passing moment like a drowning man holds fast to a life vest as he's being tossed about in an angry sea. With Bella's continued silence, his reassurances were all I had to cling to.

Just before his footsteps reached the threshold of the room where Bella lay a curious thing happened. The morphine, its scent growing fainter and fainter as the minutes ticked by, disappeared from my detection entirely. I felt my nostrils flare as I inhaled deeply, trying to pick up even the smallest trace of the drug in Bella's system but to no avail. I stared at her face and waited. With no more pain medication and the venom still working its way through every cell in her body she had to be in pain, yet she was as motionless as the stone she was slowly becoming.

Carlisle reached out and put his fingers against her wrist to feel her threading pulse. It too had taken on a more labored tenor.

"Still no change?"

I refused to drag my eyes away from her face as I responded. "None."

_That's odd. She's so quiet and yet…._

Carlisle leaned in and smelled Bella's neck where her carotid artery lay and I knew that he had also noticed the lack of morphine in her system.

"There's no scent of the morphine left."

"I know." My concern began to grow. I was certain now that she was in pain and every fiber in me throbbed with the agony that I knew she felt. I had burned once myself and it was a feeling that no immortal ever forgets. Knowing that she was feeling any of it, knowing that it was because of me, threw me into a desperate state. The idea of her pain was unthinkable to me.

"Bella? Can you hear me?"

_This is fascinating. From a medical standpoint, the absence of morphine should indicate the absence of any narcotic effect on her pain and yet she is as reposed as ever. She should be screaming. Her pain has to be unbearable._

Carlisle's thoughts ratcheted up my anxiety to an almost intolerable level. "Bella? Bella, love? Can you open your eyes? Can you squeeze my hand?"

Nothing. Carlisle continued to posit scenario after scenario in his mind, completely unaware in his contemplations that I was hanging on every word. Each theory that came to his mind was more discouraging than the last and it wasn't long until I felt myself beginning to come unhinged. I'd done this to her. I had put her in the mortal danger that now made her survival a looming question mark above all of our heads.

How long had I fought to protect Bella? I'd fought so hard to keep her safe I'd even been willing to suffer the unthinkable reality of life without her, so convinced was I that my absence would keep her safe. But then it became evident that my absence in her life, and her in mine, was more perilous than if we were to just succumb to our need for each other and be together. Yet still there were concerns, questions of her safety that made me hold back and use my judgment time and time again. Her one condition, the one that flew in the face of every effort I'd made to keep her unharmed, had turned out to be the one instinct of mine that had been dead on. Allowing ourselves the pleasure of knowing marital intimacy had, in fact, been the very thing that now dangled her existence like a thread between the merciless shears of the fates. With each passing moment I was becoming less and less convinced that those fickle entities weren't going to snatch my love away from me after all.

And to add to my self-loathing, I couldn't stop the fleeting images that went through my mind, unbidden, of the time we spent making love on the island. The way her hair looked splayed across my chest, the way the moonlight looked against her unclad form pressed up against my own. The way she felt. I would find myself in the middle of a fantasy and then remember that her current suffering was the direct result of those beautiful moments and I would want to scream in anguish.

"Maybe…Carlisle, maybe I was too late." My voice broke, mirroring the way my heart felt at the idea that my eternity may, in fact, not include Bella at all. As a human, I would have at least gotten another 50 or 60 years. But was I now gazing at her last moments? Was I, in turn, gazing at my own?

"Listen to her heart Edward. It's stronger than even Emmett's was. I've never heard anything so _vital. _She'll be perfect."

I refused the sigh of relief that his words threatened to produce. "And her-her spine?" One of the theories that had wandered idly through Carlisle's mind over the last few moments was that her spinal chord could have fused incorrectly, making her absence of pain not a result of the morphine but of a lack of sensation. The horror this thought brought up inside me was unparalleled. To give her eternity trapped in a body that could not move? What could she have ever done to deserve such a hell?

"Her injuries weren't so much worse than Esme's. The venom will heal her as it did Esme."

_Or at least I can assume. _

His words were confident, but his thoughts were not. The worry was beginning to become unbearable. "But she's so still. I _must_ have done something wrong."

Carlisle put his hand on my shoulder in a gesture of reassurance and this time I could tell that he truly felt the confidence of his words. "Or something right, Edward. Son, you did everything I could have and more. I'm not sure I would have had the persistence, the faith it took to save her. Stop berating yourself. Bella is going to be fine."

I wanted to believe him, to find solace in his words but until I could talk to her myself, until her eyes fluttered open and she was able to tell me what she felt for herself I would burn with terror at the torment I knew she must be enduring.

All because of me. I'd almost killed and now inflicted unspeakable pain on the only woman I'd ever, or would ever, love because I was too selfish to just leave her to live a normal human life.

I could barely speak above a whisper, such was the constricted feeling in my throat. "She must be in agony."

Carlisle's grip tightened. "We don't know that. She had so much morphine in her system. We don't know the effect that will have on her experience."

It was true. I'd given her enough morphine that had she not been on a path with death already it certainly would have done the job. I lowered my lips to the crease of her elbow, smelling deeply one last time before pressing a light kiss there and detecting no trace of the morphine. I was also losing the scent of her blood, the aroma that had both drawn me too her and repelled me from her. Slowly, so slowly, it was being replaced in her ever hardening body with venom and its scent was lavender and earth and rain. It was everything her blood had been, but in a way that no longer sang to my thirst. Now, her scent sang only to my heart. It was entirely new and yet it was still entirely Bella. I'd never smelled it before and yet I would know it anywhere as her.

A flutter of hope went through me but I beat it back. I didn't deserve the happy ending I desired. There was no way it could be mine.

"Look blondie, you have all of two seconds to hand her over or I'm going outside and lifting my leg all over your dream car."

The brazen threat downstairs was met with an involuntary guffaw from Emmett, a growl from Rosalie, a giggle from Renesmee and a scowl from me.

The Dog.

I hadn't left Bella's side since her transformation had begun but I had been kept apprised of the goings on in the family from their thoughts, their updates and their incredibly loud arguments. A father for one day and I was already being forced to deal with the idea of a soul mate for my daughter due to the mystical imprinting process the Quileute wolves underwent.

_I know your reluctance to leave her son, but should you intervene here? As Nessie's father?_

I shook my head. There was no threat to Nessie, I'd heard the thoughts of all the parties involved and love for my child was the only mitigating factor. "No, I'm staying right here. They'll sort it out."

Carlisle and I talked a few more moments, keeping the conversation entirely to the imprinted wolf and the surrogate mother Rosalie had become. How could so much be happening simultaneously while my wife's life hung in the balance? My world had stopped. How could anyone else's still be turning?

Carlisle turned to leave the room.

_I'll send Alice up when she comes back. I know you are anxious for an update._

I smiled slightly, grateful that he knew me so well that I hadn't even had to ask. Alone again I stared at the changes that were now beginning to appear more obvious. The smoothing and hardening of her features was giving her face an almost entirely different appearance now. She was still Bella, but another version of herself. I know she never believed me when I cavalierly told her the changes to her physical form would be of no concern to me but I'd truly meant it. Of course I'd always considered her impossibly beautiful, but I'd fallen in love with the girl, not the face. Only after I'd gotten to know her a bit, to see how unique and singularly special she was had I noticed the exquisite package she came wrapped up in. But that was all it was. A package. An outer wrapping on Christmas morning that contained the most wonderful gift anyone could ever have.

_The house is all set. You should SEE the closet Edward. She is going to be the best dressed newborn anyone has ever seen!_

Alice's footfalls came to a stop directly behind me, her enthusiasm bubbling all around her. I wished I could share it, but my concern hadn't ebbed since Carlisle's departure and the only chance I had for any peace of mind was for the visions I could see in hers. " How much longer?"

Her thoughts focused on Bella and I could see her, alive and vital and impossibly beautiful, in her mind's eye. "It won't be long now, see how clear she's becoming? I can see her so much better now."

Because I could see her too I felt instantly, yet cautiously, better and I couldn't resist teasing her a moment at her inability to see the wolves or Renesmee. Alice's gift was so special and so important to us that I couldn't resist taking her down a peg now and again. Isn't that what brothers were for anyway?

All joking out of the way, I wanted to see Bella again; to see her whole and all right in my arms. "Focus Alice."

"Right. Bella's almost too easy to see now."

I saw a little cottage in the woods, the one I'd seen in its planning stages before we left for the honeymoon. Esme had put a home together for us as she had with Emmett and Rosalie and it was going to be absolutely perfect. One could say it was years of practice at reading people and learning their preferences but I knew it to be Esme's nurturing gift that made her able to provide just the right thing to make someone feel at home and comforted.

Alice's vision widened and I saw myself walking with her and Bella through the woods up to the threshold of the cottage. Alice flitted away when we reached it and Bella unlocked the door only to look up at me with surprise when I scooped her up and carried her inside. The look she gave me then, one of total trust, unconditional love and if I was not mistaken, smoldering passion made me feel like the wind had been knocked out of me. She would be able to look at me like that so soon after her change?

I couldn't keep the sigh from escaping my lips. If Alice had seen it like this, than it was more than possible that she was going to be okay. "She's really going to be fine."

Alice's tone was almost admonishing over my lack of faith. "Of course she is."

The idea that she was going to be okay was so intoxicating, so exciting that I no longer had the patience for anything else. I had to know when the torment would end and I could have my wife back. "Could you concentrate for me? On the clock-give me an estimate."

She sighed as if put out but I could hear the amusement in her voice. "So impatient. Fine. Give me a sec-"

I saw a scene in her head of Bella opening her blood red and bewildered eyes to gaze about the room, and the muted sound of a baseball game could be heard in the background. The announcer made mention of the bottom of the seventh inning and my spirits soared. This was the same game that was currently going into the second inning on the television downstairs! Could it really be true that a mere five innings stood between this moment and the first moment of the rest of my life? "Thank you Alice."

I was now barely aware of Alice's presence, even when she commented that Bella would _be_ dazzling as if she hadn't always been in the first place. All of my awareness was concentrated on that game downstairs and each second of it seemed three times as long now than it ever would have.

_Swing and a miss. Mariners have to take advantage of the man on second if they intend on stretching their lead from two runs to three._

I'd always liked baseball. The finesse of the game and the strategic, almost chess-like, game play had always been enjoyable for me to take in during idle times. Emmett liked all sports and would often watch games with me while Jasper might catch a game or two as would Carlisle. It was really the only one that I watched with any regularity and I found it quite relaxing. Now, however, was not one of those times and I felt quite certain that I was never going to look at baseball in the same way again.

Bella's heart began to speed ever so slightly and anticipation began to billow through me like a thin stream of silky smoke. It was starting to happen. I grasped her hand tighter. Her flesh held it's own against mine.

_And that's the fourth foul for Cliff Lee. He better be careful or he's gonna find himself looking up at a hit pretty soon here._

Impatience raged inside me and I found myself, ever so briefly, wanting to tear the pitcher's arms off. How hard could it be to throw a strike and end yet another inning? He had one job to do!

_Top of the seventh and it's still a 2-0 ballgame._

Without warning Bella's heart flew into a frenzy. I wanted to scream for Carlisle, to come out of my skin with anticipation and worry and excitement and fear. I knew it had to hurt, that these last moments of her life had to be frightening and painful but I also knew that it was all about to be over soon and I wanted nothing more than to comfort my wife when she awoke in a few moments, disoriented by her new life.

I forced my voice to stay calm. "Carlisle."

I heard him rise from the couch and take the steps quickly, Alice following closely at his heels.

"Listen." They gathered around Bella and stayed silent for a moment, everyone taking in the frantic beating of her heart. I was reminded of hummingbird wings in flight by its sound. It was almost time.

"Ah, it's almost over."

Carlisle's words confirmed what I already knew and I stood, still grasping her hand in mine, and stared at her face while Carlisle and Alice made plans to get everyone into position.

_Full count. The Rangers need one more strike to round out the top of the seventh._

There was a flurry of activity around me and then we all went deathly still as Bella's fingers twitched in mine. My eyes widened as I waited for her to move again but she lay perfectly still. "Bella? Bella love?"

The thought flitted through my mind ever so briefly that maybe she had been conscious the entire time and merely holding herself in check as to not worry me. It would be just like her, to suffer in silence so others felt more comfortable. I abandoned the idea immediately however. No one could withstand that much agony in silence. Could they?

My thoughts were once again interrupted by the impossible tempo of her heart nearly doubling its frenzied staccato and, with it, her back arched up off of the table. Now I knew she was fighting a battle against the pain and my hysteria leapt back in full force. It was only moments away from being over but I still desperately willed it over with my thoughts. Please! Please let her suffering end!

_And here's the seventh inning stretch with the Mariners fighting hard keep the lead here at Safeco field…_

Her body fell back onto the table, the sound louder and harder than it would have been had human flesh and bone been making contact with the surface and not the hardened shell she had now completely become.

_Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd…_

Excitement and terror warred inside of me and I barely registered the arrival of the rest of my family, except for Rosalie and Renesmee. I was terrified for her pain, with each millisecond that it continued I felt as if I would lose all control over myself and begin screaming like a mad man in my utter inability to make it stop. Simultaneously I was excited and anxious for her to awaken to her new life. We were moments away from being a family. Forever.

_Let me root, root, root for the home team…. _

Her heart thudded once.

_For its one, two, three strikes you're out-_

It thudded again.

_At the old ball game!_

And then there was silence. We all stood calmly, every gaze in the room intent on Bella lying on the table. For just a moment I feared the worst. Her mortal body had died and all that was lying before me was its shell. She wasn't going to wake up, the visions had been wrong. I had lost her.

Then she opened her eyes.


	3. Little Cottage

**Hope you like this latest installment**

In one day my wife had completed her transformation into a vampire, met our daughter, then subsequently tried to kill the werewolf that had imprinted on said daughter, joined me in a hunt where I witnessed a mountain lion tear her clothes to shreds and now we were walking through the woods to our new home.

I had never felt more content.

In all the time that I had known and loved Bella I had thought of nothing but keeping her safe and human, of prolonging her life and preserving her soul. A vampire's afterlife is unclear, at best, and I thought only to spare her that uncertainty. To spare the tumult of not knowing what lay beyond this long and thirsty life. Every time I was too weak to stay away from her, every time I held her close when I should have been running away for her own protection I berated myself horribly. My own terrible weakness made me feel more wretched than anything else ever could.

But tonight, as we walked the last few steps to our cottage in the woods with Alice perched on Bella's back, covering her eyes to preserve the surprise, I couldn't find the guilt. My wife was a vampire. She was an undead creature like myself, cursed to an existence where she must feed on blood and live a life of subterfuge and it was entirely because of me. I should have been wallowing in a sea of guilt so deep and endless that I never saw the light of day again, but all I could feel was joy. I refused to beat myself up over the selfishness of this fact, at least not tonight.

As we stopped in front of the cottage and Alice jumped down from Bella's back to reveal our home I vowed that tonight would be filled with only joy. Bella was transformed and there was nothing that could ever be done to change it. As much as it wasn't the way I had wanted her life to end, I would accept it for the gift that it was. After experiencing the mind numbing terror of watching her nearly die before my very eyes and then burn in unknown anguish as my venom coursed through her I simply could do nothing but be thankful to have her back. We had eternity now and I would appreciate every last second of it.

"What do you think?"

Alice's voice roused me from my reverie and my attention turned to the scene in front me. Bella stood before our tiny cottage in the woods, her mouth agape, as Alice stared at her, trying to read her expression. I listened to my sister's thoughts whir as she desperately searched for a vision that would tell her what Bella's opinion of the cottage was going to be just moment's ahead of this one. The lack of vision that I was reading in her mind coupled with Bella's stunned stare led me to the conclusion that shock was keeping Bella from being able to form any kind of opinion at all, which frustrated Alice to no end.

"Esme thought we might like a place of our own for a while, but she didn't want us too far away," I explained. "And she loves any excuse to renovate. This little place has been crumbling away out here for at least a hundred years."

Bella's continued silence began to unnerve Alice but I no longer rued my inability to read her mind, as I knew her well enough to understand its meaning. She was shocked, awed and totally overwhelmed with the gift. Alice and Esme would be so pleased.

"You're giving me a house for my birthday?" I could hear the incredulous gratitude in her whisper and squeezed her hand just a bit tighter.

"Us," I corrected. "And it's no more than a cottage. I think the word _house_ implies more legroom."

"No knocking my house."

Alice's thoughts erupted in excitement as she correctly interpreted the enjoyment in Bella's tone. She was eagerly anticipating running back to tell Esme all about how much Bella loved her gift and picturing our mother's pleased expression at the news as she exclaimed, "I can't wait to tell Esme!"

Confusion knit Bella's perfect features and she tore her face away from the tiny stone edifice to look at Alice. "Why didn't she come?"

An awkward discomfort stole over Alice as she began to explain, rather ham handedly, that the family didn't want her to feel pressured to like her gift so they stayed away for the unveiling. I made no effort to lend a helping hand, rather enjoying Alice's prickly attempts to keep the fact that we were intended to spend this night alone together from Bella as to not embarrass her.

A small smile threatened the corner of my mouth as Alice bid a hasty goodbye and took off blithely into the woods. For a wise old vampire who had been alive quite long enough to learn aplomb in delicate situations she sure did get, might I say, squirmy when it came to uncomfortable subjects. I was entertained beyond explanation.

Bella looked up at me in confusion as we heard Alice's delicate footfalls disappear quickly back toward the larger house my family shared. "That was weird, am I really that bad? They didn't have to stay away. Now I feel guilty. I didn't even thank her right. We should go back, tell Esme-"

"Bella, don't be silly. No one thinks you're that unreasonable."

"Then what-"

"Alone time is their other gift. Alice was trying to be subtle about it." Then, at just the verbalization of the fact that we were expected to be alone tonight, a thirst flared in me that had nothing to do with feeding. It hit me so forcefully and so suddenly, filled me with such primal need that I suddenly had to concentrate on keeping my breathing even.

"Oh." I could see in the change of her expression, in the sound of that softly uttered word that she had caught on to the underlying meaning behind my words and the look in her eyes said she felt as I did at this moment.

As she gazed at me with naked want on her face I had to will my own emotions firmly back under control. We were in the middle of the woods, mere steps from the threshold of our own home and we needed to get into the privacy of those walls.

Now.

Taking her by the hand I pulled her forward, sure that she hadn't missed my urgency. "Let me show you what they've done."

We approached the door and I gave her the key. She turned it in the lock, as naturally as if she were still human, and I found myself awed by her all over again. My memories of being a newborn were a bit jumbled for the simple fact that my thoughts in those first hours and days were jumbled. All I could truly remember after the blinding pain had been thirst. Searing, all consuming thirst. But Bella's personality was utterly unchanged. I was perplexed by it, but much like my selfish abandonment of my guilt, I also couldn't find any emotion to pin to this development but happiness. I got to have my Bella sooner than should have ever been possible. Why was I being granted such gifts?

"You're such a natural at this, Bella; I forget how very strange this all must be for you. I wish I could _hear _it."

She got the door open and between my frustration at my deafness to her mind and the growing feelings of longing for her in my body I snatched her up in my arms, needing to do something physical to ease my torment.

It didn't help.

"Hey!" She shouted playfully at me, caught unaware by having been suddenly swept off her feet.

"Thresholds are part of my job description," Could she hear the torture in my voice? Her body fit perfectly against mine as she relaxed in my arms and as I began to enter the house she brushed against me with my movements, ever so slightly, but enough to fan the flames of my desire ever higher. I needed to keep it together, to be a gentleman. Ravishing her right here in the doorway was no way to treat the love of my life and the mother of my child on her first day as a newborn vampire.

Trying to hold my tone in check and buy a few minutes to compose myself I spoke calmly, "But I'm curious. Tell me what you're thinking about right now."

I walked her around the house so she could get a good look at everything and in my haze I had to admit that Esme had outdone herself. This was exactly the type of place I knew Bella would choose if she had any home on earth from which to select. It was homey and comfortable, complete with a low flickering fire in the corner fireplace that cast the entire stone room in a romantic glow. Its presence only heightened the feelings inside me to stop right where I was and make passionate love to my wife this instant. I had felt many new things as a result of my relationship with the woman in my arms now, and when it came to love and desire, I thought I'd felt them all. Even after the magical time we'd spent on our honeymoon, this feeling was just a bit different and I was trying to work it out in my head.

I chatted with her idly as I tried to discern what this emotion was that I couldn't name.

"We're lucky Esme thought to add an extra room. No one was planning for Ness-Renesmee."

"Not you too." The disgust in her voice was understandable; I knew she hated the nickname that was beginning to stick for our daughter. I was so wrapped up in trying to identify this new feeling that I hadn't been thinking clearly and let it slip.

On the island, the first time we'd made love, I'd been a ball of nerves and anticipation. I'd desired her, but I'd also been terrified for I knew that very desire could hurt her terribly. Then, as we'd developed a more comfortable rhythm I'd begun to feel more relaxed with our lovemaking. I knew I could stay in control, and part of my mind was always vigilantly focused on that, but the feelings of desire and craving that would start low in my belly became familiar and welcome.

"Sorry, love. I hear it in their thoughts all the time, you know. It's rubbing off on me."

She made a resigned expression and I began to walk her toward the bedroom with promises of showing her the closet that Alice had designed with painstaking care.

When I opened the door to the master suite, the enormous bed with it's gauzy canopy and reminiscence of our honeymoon bed staring us in the face, the feelings in my body that had been raging since Alice left us hit me with such staggering strength that it would have made my knees weak were they capable of doing such a thing and all at once I knew what to call this sensation.

Lust.

Pure, unadulterated, primitive lust. I wanted Bella so badly in that moment that I stood rooted to the spot, transfixed by the bed, unable to so much as take a step toward it. I'd loved her, wanted her, needed her and longed for her. I'd known the wish to become one with her and touch her the way a husband touches his wife. But this was a force all its own. This, I instinctively knew, was the feeling that came over a person when their perfect mate was ready and willing in their arms. When the woman you craved more than any other was so close that all you had to do was reach out and take her, like plucking an apple from a tree. It was so intense, so carnal, that I feared I would go mad if I didn't succumb to it soon.

"Oh." She whispered as her gaze, like mine, landed on the bed. The smoky undertones of her voice curled through me, telling me that her thoughts and my own were once again perfectly in synch.

I could will my voice to go only barely above a whisper. "I know."

I made mention again of viewing the closet while the animal side of my brain snarled at me to end my gentleman's charade and satisfy its appetite. Bella turned slowly to look at me with the most heart stopping expression on her face that, had I not already been dead to begin with, would surely have put me in mortal peril.

"We're going to tell Alice that I ran right to the clothes," she raised her hand to thread her fingers through my hair and draw my head down until my face was a hair's breadth away from hers. I had to fight not to growl, my longing for her reaching a painful height.

"We're going to tell her I spent hours in there playing dress-up," I could feel her breath against my skin, see her gaze dropping seductively to my mouth. "We're going to _lie."_

The monster inside me, the one I'd tamed and beaten back since she walked into that biology class, burst free and consumed me.

After all this time, I gladly let it.

With the groan that I'd been biting back I crushed my mouth to hers and sank to my knees. I had never felt so free in all my life. I no longer had to hold myself back, to keep myself under such tight control that my needs could only be expressed with the softest of kisses and the gentlest of caresses. Now I could love her with every ounce of my being and I intended to, oh how I intended to.

I lowered her to the ground and she pulled me down with her, her hands clawing at my clothes. I mirrored her actions and tore the already ravaged dress that had taunted me all day with its poor excuse for coverage from her body. I just couldn't get to her bare flesh fast enough. In so many ways, this was like our first time all over again and I longed to rediscover her.

My shirt seemed to disintegrate beneath her fingers and she wasted no time in running her hands up and down my chest. She wasn't being gentle but the increased pressure beneath her now exceedingly strong hands wasn't painful. Quite the contrary, it felt utterly incredible. After a lifetime of solitude I was always awed by the sensations that were aroused in me when Bella would touch me and this was no exception. Her hands held their own against me and instead of feeling soft and cautious they felt like the hands of someone enjoying the flesh of their lover. I thrilled at being that lover.

Her hands lowered to the waistline of my pants and I took the opportunity to roll us until she sat atop me. The suddenness of my movement distracted her and she lowered her head to take my mouth as I took my turn running my hands over her perfect body.

She felt so good. Not needing to be gentle was intoxicating and though I had no desire to be any less than the considerate and attentive lover that was part of who I was I was so enraptured with her body that I couldn't stop moving my hands over it. Every inch of her was as I had remembered, except she was no longer breakable. Every curve, every sinew was just as it had been but now when I ran my fingers over her collarbone I needn't worry that I would break it. When I stroked her shoulders, bruising would never haunt me again and when I reared up to take her face in my hands so I could kiss her with every bit of myself I was utterly unconcerned that I would harm her in any way.

Finally, after a hundred years plus a handful more I was kissing the love of my life and holding nothing back. I'd never known it to be possible in all of my vampire existence for my mind to go utterly blank except for the single task at hand but that was exactly where I was. Every nerve, every cell, every fiber of me was concentrated into that kiss.

I felt Bella go momentarily limp in the wake of it and I was, in that one moment, convinced that I had a soul for it sang out praises to the universe. Some things wouldn't change and her response to me was still as pure and disarming as always. I was entirely unworthy of having something this wonderful and I had to beat back a sudden sense of foreboding that told me I couldn't possible have this much perfection without having to give something up for it in return.

I had to stifle a laugh as she became impatient with the continued presence of my pants and tore them from my body in a fierce display of both newborn strength and temper. Moving with much more coordination than I was used to her being capable, she simultaneously pushed me back onto my back and then rolled us so that she was beneath me again.

As much as I'd been holding back during our previous time together I was now surprised to realize that she had been too. Every time she'd become too zealous or too fevered in her affections toward me I'd been forced to stop her for fear that I couldn't handle it. Now that fear was out of the equation, she wrapped her legs around my waist and crushed me too her with her arms, her lips going from my mouth to my cheek and then up to my ear where she took the lobe between her teeth and very nearly purred into my ear.

Any self-control that I could claim I still held snapped neatly in half. My hands thrust into her hair and I met her fervor with my own, crushing my mouth to hers and letting my tongue slip inside. I came up for a shaky breath only to begin scattering kisses across her forehead, her eyelids, her lips, then down her neck. She arched up into me, thrusting her breasts into my chest and a tremor of pleasure rocked my body.

Continuing my downward trajectory I kissed her collarbone and then made it to those breasts, taking one nipple into my mouth and teasing it with my teeth. She fisted her hand in my hair and sucked in a sharp breath, spurring me on to give her more, to make her feel as good as I did.

I continued to kiss down, making it to her flat stomach and pressing kisses to her belly button. It was here, in this place but two short days ago, that our baby had been and though the intensity of my desire didn't diminish, I suddenly found my feelings grow tender again. Now both lust and all consuming love were coexisting inside my head and inside my heart and I lifted my gaze to hers.

The red of her newborn eyes was bright and ferocious but the look in them told me that she yearned for me just as she always had. Nothing in them bespoke a need to satiate her thirst for blood or that her thoughts were otherwise occupied by the things that would have been typical for a creature of her age. As they had in her human life, her eyes were only filled with me. I was humbled to my very core and I brought myself back up until we were again face-to-face.

She sensed the change in me and she gazed up into my eyes, waiting.

"How did I get so lucky?" It was a sentiment that had been whirring through my head since she'd opened her eyes and I still didn't have the answer to it. Raising her hands to gently stroke my back she placed the most tender of kisses to my lips and smiled.

" I've asked myself the same question every day."

Overcome, I took her lips again and entered her with one long, slow thrust of my hips. She tightened her arms around me and moaned as I began to move, matching my rhythm perfectly. I found myself whispering disjointed words of love, promises of forever, between kisses as she moved her hands up and down my back, resting them on my hips from time to time.

Before I knew it she flipped us again in a blinding display of speed and I found myself staring up at the most beautiful sight I'd ever encountered. She put her hands on my chest and began to rock her hips, making me tip my head back at the torrent of ecstasy she elicited in doing so. Had I known pleasure until now? Had I ever thought for a moment that I had experienced the pinnacle of physical rapture that this life had to offer?

The sensations building in me were coming close to the breaking point and I knew that I wouldn't be able to take much more or I would go mad. Reaching up between our joined bodies I stroked and caressed her where I knew it would bring her the most pleasure and the growl that came low in her throat told me that I'd found the right place.

Her hips began to gain speed and her wild abandon was so incredibly erotic that I found myself biting my lower lip to try and remain in control. I continued what I was doing with one hand as I lifted the other hand to touch her breast, taking it into my palm and loving how it filled it up.

Her breaths became more erratic, her movements less coordinated when suddenly she found her release without warning. Crying out she shook all around me and I reared up again, gathering her in my arms and allowed myself to let go and follow her into that place of pure and utter bliss that we had known on our island. But this time it was different. This time we were able to get here with our whole selves, no aspect held in reserve.

When we came down to earth we starred, breathless and panting, into each other's eyes and seemed to lose ourselves there. My body felt loose and utterly exquisite, like it did after a very long run but even better.

"I love you Edward. Oh how I love you." She whispered as I continued to stare at her in disbelief at the power of my own feelings.

"I love you Bella. I love you my best friend."

Laying a gentle kiss to her lips I smiled. "Maybe we should try to make it the few feet to the bed?"

She laughed and buried her face into my neck. "If you insist."

I wrapped my arms around her and stood, carrying her over to the mattress and laying her down where I quickly joined her, pulling her back into my arms to minimize any time that I would have to be separated from her. She angled her face up so she could gaze into my eyes again and we lay like that until I stopped counting the time. Just looking at one another other. I shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that new and unforeseen feelings could present themselves to me at the hands of this woman but I was. It seemed like every day I was barraged with a more intense love, a stronger longing, a greater delight than I had known before. Was this the way our eternity would be?

I couldn't wait to find out.


	4. With My Mind's Eye

**Thank you so much to everyone that read and reviewed this story, I'm so happy you enjoyed it. I've never written in the first person before and thought that it would be a fun exercise, plus I just really wanted to see this story from Edward's point of view. This is the last chapter and I really hope you like it. If you have or have not left a review I'd love to know what you think. Thanks guys!**

As Bella tucked our daughter into her bed in our cozy little woodland cottage I had to admit that I'd never felt so content. In all of my years I had never known the anxiety, the uncertainty or the utter terror that I had been forced to endure these many months. To be fair, my life had been a constant whirlwind since Bella had graced it with her very presence, but that anxiety and stress had very quickly given way to a most pleasant and awe inspiring time of discovery.

If one had asked me in the midst of that time if I would ever look back fondly at the upheaval my life was experiencing I would have responded with a vehement no. As it was, I would have been gravely mistaken. That time, when Bella and I first discovered each other, will live in my memory as one of the richest times of my life. It was filled with fear and curiosity, apprehension and desire, love and confusion. I had gone through the entire human experience in just that short time, even if I was not technically human at all.

I supposed, taking my wife's hand and swinging it playfully between us as we walked to our room, that with some distance and reflection I might feel the same way about these last few months of my existence as well. I had been granted the opportunity to see my, truly, blushing bride meet me at the end of an aisle to exchange I do's, I had been given the memory of a wonderful honeymoon full of love and discovery. The gift of my wife's safe transformation from human to vampire had coincided with the birth of my daughter and now I was experiencing the limitless possibilities of a life with those I loved most dearly, uninterrupted by pain or turmoil or concern. Truly, in time, I might be able to put into perspective that I had come by all of these things only by also enduring the pain of watching Bella's near death, the wrenching idea that Alice had defected and the fear hanging over our heads that not only might our daughter have a very short life, but that it might be made even shorter by a Volturi slaughter.

We reached our bedroom and I chose to put all of my musings out of my mind for now. Time would tell if perspective would be mine, but in this moment, the languid feelings of relief still made my body feel loose and calm; made my mind feel at ease. We deserved an evening together to celebrate the fact that we'd been given the chance at a future.

Together.

"A night for celebrations." I told her, raising my hand slowly to cup her chin. I could not keep the smoky tones of desire from my voice and I knew she would catch onto my meaning instantly.

But, as per usual, my Bella surprised me.

"Wait." Pulling away, she looked at me hesitantly as if she wanted to tell me something but didn't think she should. I could not possibly imagine what she could have on her mind that I would not be privy too but if it was important enough for her to pull away from me it must be a fairly big issue.

She had my rapt attention immediately.

She smiled slightly at me, as I'm sure that I looked both confused and a bit frightened, and then placed her warm, soft hands on either side of my face.

"I want to try something."

Her eyes fluttered closed and I stared at the perfection of her eyelids, completely at sea as to what she was attempting to do. She was still a newborn and, thusly, quite capable of smashing my head with her increased strength were she so inclined but I was fairly certain she didn't intend to end me right there at the threshold to our bedroom. She could be trying to do something with her shield, but I wasn't sure what she would need direct contact for. After witnessing her enormous success and power on the field of battle today I knew that she required no physical contact to make it work-

_…hope it's working. I know I didn't do so well with this when Zafrina and I tried it, but I have less distraction right now too. As long as I keep my eyes closed that is, just looking at him would be distraction enough…._

Every nerve in my body came alive with excitement and I had to stifle a stunned gasp. I could hear her!

"Bella!" I whispered breathlessly, my shock so complete that I could utter nothing more. How I had longed for this, for the ability to hear her mind. It had been hidden from me, like a lost treasure that men had spent generations searching for only to die unfulfilled and penniless. I'd come to terms with the fact that I would never hear her, but now my very being hummed with pleasure and excitement.

_Oh, it's working. Okay, here goes…._

My head was filled with the picture of a fuzzy memory, no doubt from her human mind's eye. She sat at a table with her human friends in what I now recognized was the Forks High cafeteria. Her gaze settled on my family and I at our usual table, before I defected and began sitting with Bella of course. We'd looked so strange and exotic to her. It was fascinating to see through her eyes.

_Well at least there are some people here who aren't gawking at me. They don't seem to notice me at all, which is a relief. Except, they don't seem to be noticing much of anything. They're all looking in different directions. Weird. None of them really look that much alike, but they have to be related because they all have that really pale skin. They're almost inhumanly beautiful._

Oh how observant she had been! I had always known her to be exceptionally observant when it came to things that other humans were happy to merely ignore but I had no idea that it went back to her very first exposure to us. Nothing got past her.

Then my mind was filled with an image, though still hazy, of my face.

_Look at how perfect he is. He has the face of an angel. Am I blushing? _

Her vision became partially obscured by her hair as she hid her face behind it.

_It must be hard to be outsiders like they are. No wonder they stay so close together._

It was just like Bella to put everyone's needs and concerns at the forefront of her mind and I had to stifle the urge to take her into my arms. Then her vision shifted a bit to reveal my face again from behind her hair. I was gazing at her and I recalled perfectly that moment when our eyes met. I was just starting to realize that I couldn't pick her mind out from the others. It was incredibly frustrating at the time.

_Oh he was looking right at me! Why? Did he want something? He seemed like he wanted something from me. That couldn't be it, what could he possibly want with me? He's just too… too… magnificent. _

Always giving me credit I never deserved I stifled a protest in time for her thoughts to shift and reveal a completely new scene. This one was still hazy and human, but revealed a picturesque place, rioting with color and sunlight and I knew it was our meadow. She turned her gaze from the surrounding luxuriance of nature and focused down at my prone form. I lay in the grass, my shirt open to reveal the sparkling of my unnatural flesh and my own mind turned back to how I'd felt in those moments. I had been so afraid that she would be revolted by everything I was revealing. I was not human, I was a killer; designed to lure her in and suck her dry. I sparkled in the sun in my diamond hard shell while my flesh was freezing to the touch and I was both sure and terrified all at once that she would turn and run from me once that realization struck her.

_To think I'd ever found something like this meadow spectacular when something as beautiful as Edward exists. I have to touch him. If I don't I won't be able to tell myself later that this was real, that it really happened._

She reached out one solitary finger; tentative for fear that I would evaporate before her, and stroked the back of my hand. The memory of that moment, for me, was one I'd cherished in my top memories for some time now. It was the first time that I had allowed her to purposefully touch me for I had been so convinced, up to that point, that she would be filled with nothing but disgust at my cold, hard skin. When I'd finally allowed her to touch me as she wished I'd been filled with sensations that were almost more than I'd been equipped to bear.

Her skin had felt like fire while it was impossibly soft and pleasing all at once. A woman had never touched me before, especially one that I was in love with for I'd never been in love before either. The magnitude of that experience changed me. It was when I started to believe, little by little, that I might be able to have a real love relationship with her and not harm her. I just had to be very, very careful.

_He's not telling me to stop, which seems like a good sign. I hope he doesn't, but he might want me to and is too polite to ask._

_ "Do you mind?"_

In her memory I lay motionless before her, my eyes softly closed as I let her run her fingertips up and down my arm.

"_No. You can't imagine how that feels."_

_ Good, because I really didn't want to have to stop. Not when it feels so, right, to touch him. Not when he's finally letting me really know him. I wonder what his palm would feel like. Would it be softer than the rest of him? Like a human's palm?_

_ Oh!_

My memory self flipped my palm over with a speed that had felt normal to me, but now seeing it through her eyes, looked unnaturally fast. She had always had a way of making me forget any pretense and just be myself.

_Look at how his skin glitters when I move his hand around. Like crystals. _

Then her memory jumped forward a bit.

_"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb…."_

_ Love. He didn't exactly say he loved _me_ but that is what he's trying to say, right? I'm sure he can hear my heart pounding right now. I'm glad he isn't looking at me. I bet my cheeks are beyond red. Could he really love me? I don't see how, I'm completely ordinary and he is like a god. _

I would have chastened her had I not been so engrossed in what she was showing me, in what I'd always been desperate to know from her side. How could she take one look at my family and me and know that we were not natural while on the other hand she could utterly miss my every early attempt to tell her how desperately in love with her I was? There had been so many times I'd felt I made my feelings abundantly plain and she had missed my intent time and time again.

Her memory wavered again and this time we were an hour or so in the future from the previous memory. My breathing hitched, as I knew precisely which memory she was about to show me for each nuance of this one was etched indelibly into my mind as well.

She was about to show me the first time I'd kissed her.

"_I was thinking there was something I wanted to try."_

_ He's taking my face into his hands. Does he want to kiss me? Earlier he didn't seem to feel like he could trust himself to be even remotely close to me and now he's going to kiss me? Oh please let that be it. I can't breathe. His hands feel so good on my face. How could he ever think of himself as a monster when he can be this gentle? Oh God I can't breathe. His face is coming closer. He smells so sweet. Why is he hesitating? He's testing himself. I know he is. I have to hold very still, let him know that he can handle this. _

I saw myself move closer, lower my lips softly to hers.

_ I can't think, he's filling every one of my senses. I have to have more of him, I have to feel him against me. I can't breathe! I need him! All of him! His hair is so soft, if he would just part his lips a bit more. I can't get close enough. I love him. Oh God, I love him. _

I squeezed my eyes tightly at the words swimming through my mind, mingling with my own memories of that day, and I felt my eyes prickle as if tears could fall from them. I'd come to accept that Bella _believed_ that she loved me as intensely, as deeply as I loved her but I'd always felt it impossible that she could. No human could ever have felt as strongly as I did for her, there was no way that their fragile bodies could contain the depth of such emotions. Or so I'd thought.

Feeling her fervor and hearing her thoughts almost dropped me to my knees. She'd loved me as I'd loved her, wanted me like I did. That kiss had nearly killed me for as soon as I'd touched my lips to hers, fireworks of sensation had erupted in my body. Her mouth was like fire, but a fire that was pliant and sweet against my lips before she'd burst into full flame all around me. Her hands were in my hair, her body wrapped wantonly around me and the monster that lived inside me snarled in near victory when I very nearly threw her to the ground and took her with the passion I hadn't even known I possessed.

Before her vision wavered yet again I caught a glimpse of myself, completely calm and self possessed, holding her as I centered myself again. Had she been able to read _my _mind she would know that the onslaught of emotion she'd stirred was raging so fiercely inside me that it didn't settle until much, much later.

Her next memory formed in my mind and it took me a moment to realize what I was hearing as the mental picture she had was, at first, completely dark.

_Dying isn't so bad. It feels like drifting actually. Drifting through cool water. If it weren't for this burning in my hand it would be quite peaceful actually. Imagine that. Why is the burning getting worse? Shouldn't all of the sensation be leaving me if I'm dying?_

_ "Bella!"_

_ Ah, there it is. An angel's calling me so I must be dead. I just need to reach the angel's voice and it will all be over. _

_ "Carlisle! Bella, Bella, no, oh please, no, no!"_

_ Why is the angel crying? That isn't right, nothing so beautiful should be made to cry like that. If I could just tell him that it's okay, that everything will be all right now, I could make it better. I had done it. I was the one dying instead of Edward. I'd saved him. My perfect Edward, I'd saved him from James. You see angel? There is no reason to cry when someone as wonderful as Edward still exists._

I wanted to sob, to scream, but could only listen as I finally understood why this had been in her top moments. It was one of the most harrowing of my life, seeing my love broken and dying at the hands of one of our kind. I could feel the love for me, even in what could have realistically been her last minutes on earth, punctuating her every thought and I vowed all over again that I would follow Bella anywhere. Her love, truly as deep and true as mine, was so evident that I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I was not a creature worth the level of adoration that Bella was and yet, here was the evidence laid plainly out for me to finally witness for myself.

The pressure of Bella's hands on my head intensified slightly and I could tell she was struggling to maintain this connection with my mind and hers. I barely had time to register that fact before her mind flitted to a new memory and I saw myself standing at the end of the aisle on our wedding day. I could see the adoration for her in my eyes and feel the chaotic mix of emotions running through her head of being both the center of attention and a bride about to meet her groom.

_Why in the world had I been so against this? I still don't understand how the look in those soft, buttery eyes of his is only for me but somehow it is and I almost told him that I wouldn't be his? I guess I just took for granted that nothing in the world, marriage or otherwise, would be a strong enough vow for how completely he held my heart anyway. But I suppose I didn't consider how good it would feel for _him_ to vow himself to _me. _Here, in front of all of our friends and family he is telling them that he loves me as completely as I love him, that he wants me with him forever. Now that I have this, I will hold this moment in my heart forever. Beating or not._

I tenderly reached up and brushed an errant lock of hair from her shoulder, being careful to keep my movement soft so as to not distract her. I just couldn't help myself, so moved was I that she'd felt so strongly on our wedding day. It had meant so much to me to have that rite of passage, to stand before everyone and profess or love in an official capacity. Though she had wept joyful as we took our vows and enjoyed herself during our reception party, I had always felt she was placating me to a degree by going along with it. Hearing her thoughts from that day, knowing unequivocally that it had meant so much to her to become my wife left me undone.

I felt so pleased by the memory coursing through my mind that I didn't immediately notice that it was fading and shifting until I caught an aura of excitement and anticipation in her thoughts. Bringing myself immediately to alert I saw myself standing in the surf, the moonlight illuminating the exposed upper half of my torso to the point that I looked porcelain.

_It's just him and me, as it was meant to be. Somehow this flawless man is my husband and somehow he loves me. All I have to do is go to him in that water and make him feel how I feel right now, at ease and certain that nothing bad can happen with as much love as we have between us. Everything is going to be fine, I know it. I also know that I have to touch him. I have to feel him beneath my hands and take my time now that he won't tell me to stop. I need my husband._

A thirst seared the back of my throat as I watched the scene that was burned into my psyche play out from her point of view, a thirst that had nothing to do with blood. I watched as she molded herself to me, listened as she thought about how good I felt to her when I had been convinced that my cold skin had to be unpleasant next to her molten hot flesh. We left the water and butterflies took frantic flight in her stomach while I carried her to the house and placed her on the bed.

I looked intense to her, almost feral, and I had no idea how she could regard me in the state that I now see I was in and not be terrified that I would lose control and hurt her. There wasn't even a moment's hesitation in her mind.

_He has never looked at me like this before and I can't believe how much I like it. This was worth waiting through all of the times that he pushed me away, stopped me, told me to slow down. If I ever wondered if he wasn't attracted to me, the look in his eyes now is proof that he is. _

I lay on the bed with her and we began what would be our first time. She replayed every touch, every nuance in the best detail she could, given that the memory was human, and I found myself swept up in the moment with her all over again.

_Yes Edward, just like that. Mmmmm, don't stop, please don't ever stop touching me. I would trade anything in the world that I have just to make sure that he never stops touching me. He feels so good._

My breath was labored and I realized suddenly that she had been telling the complete and utter truth that next morning when she'd awoken with feathers in her hair and a smattering of bruises across her delicate flesh. She really hadn't registered a moment of displeasure. Clearly I had touched her too hard and though I had long ago stopped berating myself for my lack of perfect control, I had never truly believed her that I hadn't hurt her.

Her thoughts continued on and I watched as we made passionate love, fitting together perfectly from the first moment and her enjoyment made me want to come out of my skin. It was too much, all too much at once. She loved me as fiercely as I loved her, even though I hadn't thought it possible. She had found the profound meaning in our wedding and marriage that had meant so much to me and now I was feeling the proof of her words that she had experienced nothing but total pleasure on our wedding night.

Her memories began to skip forward and I watched as my own hands found her belly, enormous with our child.

_He kicks whenever Edward touches me. My little nudger already knows his daddy._

Her thoughts flew past me in a blur, too hazy and rapid for me to catch much of. I was caught up, unable to see more than a glimpse here on there of the people that surrounded her in the last moments of her human life, ending with a picture from her point of view of Renesmee, newly born and smiling. It was the clearest of all of her human memories as it was to be her last.

Then the memories became crystalline in their clarity and I new immediately that we had reached the thoughts that she now wanted to share with me from her vampire mind.

A picture formed in her mind from low on the ground and I realized that she was crouching. I stood in front of my family, my hand outstretched to her, as we all watched her with a mix of anticipation and wariness. My face was much clearer to her with her newfound vampire eyes.

_Have I ever seen him before? Can there be anything on this earth more stunning than he is? It's as if I've never looked at his face. I don't think I'll be able to drag my eyes to anything else. I could spend an eternity looking at him and still never understand how this kind of perfection is possible. _

Again, giving me credit I didn't deserve, but the remarkable thing was that her thirst was the furthest thing from her mind. No newborn in any of our collective memories had ever taken to their new life with such seamlessness and here I could finally hear what those first moments had been like for her. There was no thirst, no bloodlust. There was, as always, just me. I swallowed hard, humbled.

I watched as I took her face in my hands and lowered my mouth to hers, my family watching our first interchange from across the room.

_Don't hurt him. Remember not to hurt him. Remember not to…. Oh his lips are amazing. Feel how soft they are now that mine can stand against them! He isn't holding back, how can it be possible that I can have this? Aren't I supposed to want nothing but blood right now? Isn't thirst supposed to be the dominant emotion here? His tongue is running across my lower lip. Oh god I can't get close enough. I have to get closer. Don't hurt….love….just touch…..oh. Did someone just clear their throat?_

I couldn't take much more. I wanted to hear her, to hear all of it, but her thoughts and memories were so intoxicating and so important that I was beginning to unravel. Everything I had believed was being turned on its ear, which should not have surprised me. Bella never reacted how I expected, never did or said what a typical human would have. Her thoughts proved to be as unique as I'd expected. They also proved, all at once, that she'd always been equal in her dedication to me as I to her and the knowledge of that was tearing down every preconceived notion I possessed. I was not going to be able to hold out from taking her in my arms much longer.

Then her thoughts turned to a moment that left me unable to control myself.

_The bed. It's exactly like the one on our island. Too bad it's so far away; we just aren't going to make it there._

_ "We're going to tell Alice that I ran right to the clothes. We're going to tell her I spent hours in there playing dress-up. We're going to _lie."

_ He feels it too. I will never get tired of this new kissing! It feels so good that he can pour his whole strength into it, that he isn't constantly afraid he's going to _break_ me. I feel like electricity is coursing through my veins, even though my heart isn't pumping. It's Edward. He is my heart._

I lost my fragile grip on control and pulled her hard against me, my lips finding hers in a crushing kiss that poured all of my passion and intensity into her so as to relieve myself of even a small fraction of it. The thoughts of us sinking to the floor at the very spot in which we now stood stopped abruptly, as if someone had violently shut a door in front of the image to cut me off from viewing it.

"Oops, I lost it!" She sighed against my lips and I angled my head to deepen the kiss. After a moment I pulled back enough to rest my forehead against hers and try to compose myself.

"I _heard_ you." My voice was ready and breathless in my overwhelmed state and I closed my eyes, trying to reign myself in enough to handle more. I wanted more, I had to hear everything. Why was I able to hear her now, after all this time?

"How? How did you do that?"

I pulled away to look at her serene face as she answered. "Zafrina's idea. We practiced with it a few times."

It had to have something to do with her shield, but I still felt utterly bewildered. This whole time, she had been blocking me and anyone else who was capable of manipulating her mind with their power and she had been completely unaware that she was doing it at all.

I could do nothing but stare as she shrugged, her demeanor nonchalant. "Now you know. No one's ever loved anyone as much as I love you."

My awe was far from diminished but I managed a smile at her coy attempt at flippancy. "You're almost right. I know of just one exception."

I lowered my mouth to hers again as she whispered the word "Liar" against my lips. Oh how I loved her! Every moment was as intense and all consuming as the first for me; such was the nature of love for a vampire. But after what I had just witnessed I would never be the same again. I'd gotten my dearest wish, to hear the incredible and nuanced workings of Bella's mind and what I'd found there had rocked me to my foundation. I had to have more. This newfound gift was like a drug.

Pulling away I looked intently into her eyes. "Can you do it again?"'

She looked unsure and it was in that moment that I realized she was fatigued, or as much so as we ever got. The day had been intense for all of us but I knew that using her shield was possible with no small effort on her part. "It's very difficult."

I didn't want to force her to try if she wasn't feeling up to it but I couldn't bring myself to wait either. Unable to make the call myself I merely stared at her, I'm sure my expression telling her in no uncertain terms that I would very much like to hear her again.

She donned the expression of an indulgent mother, allowing their child one more sweet if they promise to be good. "I can't keep it up if I'm even the slightest bit distracted."

I played my part perfectly. "I'll be good."

She placed her hands on my face again, her narrowed eyes giving way to a smile before she let her lids fall closed again and concentration took hold of her features.

_It's a good thing my dress was already ruined because he's managed to make it ribbons in just seconds. I wonder how fast I could rip off his shirt. I love being strong!_

She started up just as she'd left off, with us tearing desperately at each other's clothes, eager to make love without fear of injury or harm.

_His skin feels so warm and soft against me while his body is still as strong and perfect as I remember; even more so now that I can finally _see _him. I was a fool to fear giving up my human life because I would never want him as much as I would want blood. I want him more than I could have ever imagined possible. I love it when he runs his hands up and down my back like that. His fingers are so long and his hands are so big but they feel so gentle and strong all at the same time. I need him inside me. I need him so much I feel like I can't breathe!_

Before I knew it I'd taken her mouth again, realizing only as I was losing myself to our kiss that I had broken my promise as the walls came down around her thoughts yet again.

She chuckled at my transgression but my mood was now too caught up, too intense for light heartedness. "Damn it." I growled, biting her lower lip gently and then spreading a trail of kisses down her jaw. I couldn't watch anymore, the tether that had held my command over myself had snapped and it would be irreparable tonight.

Picking her up so she straddled my waist I began to walk her to the bed. She wrapped her arms languidly around my neck and kissed my earlobe as she said softly, "We have plenty of time to work on it."

I laid her back on the bed and crawled over top of her, my hands planted into the mattress on either side of her head as I gazed down into her eyes. "Forever and forever and forever."

She smiled and I was sure that I'd never seen anything so breathtaking. "That sounds exactly right to me."

I lowered my lips to hers and thanked whatever power responsible for giving me this gift. For so long I'd had a missing piece, but now I was whole. Bella, my life, my love, had made me whole.

Until the end of days I would never stop being thankful.


End file.
